Heat capacity as an indicator of entanglement

We demonstrate that the presence of entanglement in macroscopic bodies (e.g., solids) in thermodynamical equilibrium could be revealed by measuring heat capacity. The idea is that if the system was in a separable state, then for certain Hamiltonians heat capacity would not tend asymptotically to zer...

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Main Authors: Wiesniak, M, Vedral, V, Brukner, C
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2008
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author Wiesniak, M
Vedral, V
Brukner, C
author_facet Wiesniak, M
Vedral, V
Brukner, C
author_sort Wiesniak, M
collection OXFORD
description We demonstrate that the presence of entanglement in macroscopic bodies (e.g., solids) in thermodynamical equilibrium could be revealed by measuring heat capacity. The idea is that if the system was in a separable state, then for certain Hamiltonians heat capacity would not tend asymptotically to zero as the temperature approaches absolute zero. Since this would contradict the third law of thermodynamics, one concludes that the system must contain entanglement. The separable bounds are obtained by minimalization of the heat capacity over separable states and using its universal low-temperature behavior. Our results open up a possibility to use standard experimental techniques of solid-state physics-namely, heat-capacity measurements-to detect entanglement in macroscopic samples. © 2008 The American Physical Society.
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spelling oxford-uuid:59e55149-1d9d-42d0-8a09-f4d5256aff902022-03-26T17:12:25ZHeat capacity as an indicator of entanglementJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:59e55149-1d9d-42d0-8a09-f4d5256aff90EnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2008Wiesniak, MVedral, VBrukner, CWe demonstrate that the presence of entanglement in macroscopic bodies (e.g., solids) in thermodynamical equilibrium could be revealed by measuring heat capacity. The idea is that if the system was in a separable state, then for certain Hamiltonians heat capacity would not tend asymptotically to zero as the temperature approaches absolute zero. Since this would contradict the third law of thermodynamics, one concludes that the system must contain entanglement. The separable bounds are obtained by minimalization of the heat capacity over separable states and using its universal low-temperature behavior. Our results open up a possibility to use standard experimental techniques of solid-state physics-namely, heat-capacity measurements-to detect entanglement in macroscopic samples. © 2008 The American Physical Society.
spellingShingle Wiesniak, M
Vedral, V
Brukner, C
Heat capacity as an indicator of entanglement
title Heat capacity as an indicator of entanglement
title_full Heat capacity as an indicator of entanglement
title_fullStr Heat capacity as an indicator of entanglement
title_full_unstemmed Heat capacity as an indicator of entanglement
title_short Heat capacity as an indicator of entanglement
title_sort heat capacity as an indicator of entanglement
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AT vedralv heatcapacityasanindicatorofentanglement
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